'Ginny & Georgia,' 'The Waterfront' star Humberly González: 'My characters on screen were my allies'

Yahoo

6 days ago

From starring in two Netflix hit shows, Ginny & Georgia and The Waterfront, to being nominated for a BAFTA for the Star Wars Outlaws video game, Humberly González is one of the most exciting actors to come out of Canada. The Venezuela-born actor trained at the National Theatre School of Canada, where she "fell in love" with being on a film set, and that sparked her impressive career.
González has also played several queer characters in her career, being that Latinx and queer representation for many who haven't been able to see themselves on screen. The actor spoke to Yahoo Canada about the evolution of her career, and some of her most notable projects to date.I, I just thought, you know, if our job is to be a storyteller, I don't think the body that we're born with and the shell that we are, should be a reason to not book something.
I think it's, it's who we are as human, it's our experience, it's our culture, it's our roots, it's our family, our nurture or nature.
All of that is what makes us great storytellers, not just what we look like.
At what point did it kind of switch for you where you thought, cool, i, you know, enjoy performing, i enjoy kind of doing this stuff to, oh, i can actually like potentially do this as like a career and as my job.
Oh, i mean, i was always in drama school, like doing little shows and plays when i was little, and i think most children and kids do that, you know, it's something to get out of your head, sometimes it's, you know, to help you with public speaking or just being more confident.
But for me, i think when i got accepted into the National Theatre School of Canada and i moved across the country from Alberta to Montreal.
It just solidified what's possible, and i wasn't really thinking i was gonna go into TV and film, but i knew that i was at least going to do theater, and maybe i was, you know, the highest dream of that would be like, oh well, maybe i'll do like Broadway, off Broadway plays, or at least in Canada, the Shaw Festival, the Stratford Festival, which is, you know, i had a lot of friends who would do the seasons and they live out there and it's like this cute little town and you do theater all day, um.
So that was like the first moment and then in 3rd year, um we collaborated with Don McKellar on a film.
Uh, he wrote this short film for all 12 of us in the class, and that film was the first time i was ever on a film set.
Um, i had never even stepped foot on one.
I didn't know what the technicalities were, how it all worked, and i fell in love.
I loved.
Just, you know, the restarting of it all, the props, the continuity, the direction, and i learned a lot from Dominic Keller, you know, he taught me to, to make it minimal and small and just to think the thought and really play it through, and i think that for me was a aha moment that i was like.
Could I go into TV and film, like, could I be in a movie one day?
That was, that seemed surreal and unattainable maybe, but I was curious about it and that film ended up going to the Short Cuts at TIFF.
so I ended up going to my own premiere in Toronto with my agent, and that was so wild and it was my agent, truly, um, my first agent here in Canada, she pushed me beyond what I thought I was capable of.
She really believed in me and thought that I had what it, what was necessary to be in this industry.
And, um, I never looked back.
I never did theater.
I would audition for it, but then I started doing film and I started mostly in commercial work, and that gave me kind of the skill set on how a set technically moves without having the pressure of saying my lines or having a relationship yet.
But man, I loved it.
I mean that first year, I think I did so many commercials I could sell you anything, but after I booked like my first one-liner or like couple lines on a TV show and shortly after that I booked my first video game, which I loved so much.
I love motion capture.
That first couple years I was like, oh I think I'm, I'm gonna do this for real.
I think this is gonna happen and, you know, come 2017, I ended up going back to school, to the Canadian Film Center.
And when I graduated from that, that was 2018, it was like nonstop.
I think that's when things really, really clicked and from 2018 onward, acting was my full-time job and I was doing so many different things that I was like OK, here we go, like, let's keep going and we just kept building.
In terms of, you know, auditioning, especially in that early time, where you're just kind of getting like a line in one episode here, a couple episodes here.
what was that time like for you just in terms of kind of navigating what the landscape was like?
Auditioning was so new for me.
I had no idea really what it entailed, and back then self-taping, which is what's popular now, wasn't really a thing.
I mean, I was auditioning for commercials and for little TV shows and it was all in person.
So it was very time consuming.
I mean, I lived in the West End.
Most auditions were on the East End of town, so it would take you at least one hour to get there for a five-minute audition and then you would go back.
Uh, but I remember commercials, for example, they were always hundreds of people.
It was like literally you're just getting there and there's a million people that all kind of have like the same wardrobe, the same hair, maybe the same look, and I was like, wow, what are the odds that I'm gonna book this?
Really, like it was very nerve-wracking at times.
I used to get really anxious before auditions, um, waiting in that room, maybe running into some of your peers, wondering like, oh, well, they're here, they're probably gonna get it, maybe, I don't know.
I started gaining confidence the more I showed up and I kind of played this game with myself that this was just for fun.
Like I got to go do what I love.
So don't put pressure on yourself, don't show up being desperate, like, please pick me.
I'm just going to show them what I can do.
So I showed up with my bigness and my smile and my warmth, and I always broke the ice with a comment or a question, and that allowed me to kind of take charge of the room a bit more and not apologize for being there.
Which was something I really had to get over, you know, it's like, well, you only get a couple of minutes, so you're just almost like, okay, sorry, sorry, here I go, okay, sorry, thank you.
Instead of just taking up that space, even if it's two minutes, you're still so worthy to take up those full two minutes that might feel way longer if you leave a good impression.
So I'm really grateful for the beginning of my career where I got the skill set of auditioning in person and meeting professionals face to face.
There were times where the director was there, and, you know, that's not something you really get now.
So when I do self-tapes and I do have, um, chemistry reads over Zoom or Zoom callbacks, um, that anxiety doesn't come up anymore.
Because I know what it's like to be in those rooms.
So it really taught me a lot.
I'm really grateful for that period where, you know, you had to really just throw yourself into the pit and hope for the best.
Let's talk Utopia Falls.
Um, I think that shows like incredibly underrated.
That was my first big role, really.
It was a series regular.
I was in every episode.
Not just that, I mean, the auditioning process, I auditioned for every lead in that show.
I auditioned for Devin's part and Robin's part, and eventually I ended up auditioning for Brooklyn, and once I stepped foot into her role, I was like, oh no, this is, this is so much more me.
I remember talking to Art Thorn, we hopped on the phone before I did like the final call back and he was just like, you know, she's got swagger, she's confident, she's witty.
And I was like, so just be me, got it.
Like this is like, I can totally ooze that and, and ended up being, you know, what landed me then, you know, we had dance callbacks.
I had to, oh my gosh, do choreo and I'm a dancer.
Listen, I can dance.
I grew up in Venezuela, like Latinos can really do it, but I'm not like a trained dancer like someone like Devon was, right?
She picks up choreo in a second.
Oh my goodness.
And then they're like, oh, by the way, our choreographer is Tanisha Scott.
Who is the top choreographer who has choreographed for like Rihanna and Beyonce and I'm like, mhm, yeah, great, this is amazing, totally casual.
I was sore for three days after that callback.
Um, they kept me behind after doing the choreo, which I didn't nail completely, but I gave it my best, but they, they kept me behind and they said, choose any song of your liking and we want to see you dance in your style.
And I know that that meant like, yes, salsa, merengue, like anything that you know was more in my bones and I chose um the salsa song that I just improvised to and they were like, OK, thank you, and I was like, OK. Um, I also had to sing for the show.
It was like all of the things that I love to do using all of like my triple threat action from being a theater kid, I used in that show, and I agree it is so underrated because we have so many POC, we have that this came out during a really tough time, right?
It was right at the start of COVID.
I think, you know, the production company that owned the rights like dissolved and there was just kind of this up in the air.
It was just bad timing, except it was the perfect timing at the same time because people were home watching the show during Black Lives Matter and here we have a Black creator with black leads talking about justice, talking about human resilience, talking about what matters and honestly, I'm so proud to have been a part of that show even today.
Now that my profile has risen and people are now looking back to my work, there are people rewatching Utopia Falls and I'm getting comments on my recent posts like, is there really just one season of Utopia Falls?
I'm like, oh my God, maybe we need to revamp it.
Maybe we could bring it back.
I'm like, guys, we could make this show again with maybe a bit more money and support, and I think it would do so freaking well, honestly.
I think we should start rebooting things that were like around the beginning of COVID because like all of that stuff.
There was so much good stuff that I don't think got the love that it deserves.
I think we need to bring some of these things back.
I think Utopia Falls would be one of those perfect shows to bring back.
By the time you get to in the dark, I think something that's interesting about your career is you have a particularly interesting kind of really being able to have some great queer representation in the shows that you've participated in, and to kind of be that representation for a lot of people and a lot of people have really responded to that.
What has it been like to be able to kind of fill those shoes in your career?
For me, it just brought me closer to myself as well.
I wasn't out.
It was something that I knew for myself, but was too fearful to put myself out there because I, not that I wasn't even ready.
I just didn't know how to label myself or I felt pressure to have it all together before I did.
I wasn't sure if I had to do this like long post and talk about it.
I also felt fearful of not being queer enough because I didn't look a certain way or because of who I was openly dating.
And all of those fears that I realized now are also other people's fears, but playing, you know, Vanessa, and In the Dark, who was bisexual and was open about that, I was like, oh my God, how do they know?
It was kind of like very healing for me to play into a role that was so close to who I am.
and nobody else knew, but I could play it so authentically without other people knowing that this was truly me.
Um, and then landing Utopia Falls was also another queer character that they didn't have to have any labels at all.
No one even cared.
They, it was just normalized.
It was like love is truly love and nobody talks about all of these labels and that was even more healing for me cause I'm like, wow, I really fell into that so easily and I'm like.
I wish the world was like this, and I was like, why can't I just exist as I am?
I don't need to give excuses or explanations, um, and I was like this close.
I was like so ready to be like that full self and then Ginny and Georgia came around.
Um, I actually shot both those shows at the exact same time.
Oh wow.
One was in the fall and one was in the summer, late summer, uh, 2019, uh.
And what a blessing because literally it was going from one queer role to this other beautiful queer role and I was like, OK, it's obvious that the industry is really guiding me into like, hey, this is who you are, we believe, we believe you when you're in love, no matter who it is, and I love playing love interests.
I think it's, it just comes naturally to me cause I am love.
I've been told this so many times and I'm like, so it comes from me and, you know, by the time that Jenny and Georgia came out and it premiered, um, I had already been talking to a lot of my community and people about my hesitations, but also like how proud I am to be representing that even if it's just for me at that moment.
At that point, it was truly for me and it was healing me and my own wounds, being Latina, being an immigrant, um, not seeing a lot of representation in the queer community that looked like me, so I wasn't sure how that was gonna be received, but it happened so naturally when it did, and I did just start kind of saying it and talking about it.
It wasn't this big like surprise because my characters on screen were my allies.
They were my support.
It was like my proof of like this is who I am because these characters have supported me through these years, and it was kind of beautiful that the same way that audiences see me and they see themselves represented.
I did too.
I saw myself represented in the characters I was playing and I don't think anyone ever really gets that opportunity.
Um, there were little stepping stones to becoming my full self and finally sharing it.
And now I'm like, I love it so much.
I got to play more queer roles after that, so it's really amazing.
I'm so grateful that the camera picked up on it, and they were like, yep, Star Wars, another massive thing.
But I don't want to gloss over the fact that I think having the first Latina lead in history and being able to do that is massive.
And I think the number of people who can't see themselves represented is huge, and to be able to kind of be that for somebody, for a bunch of people who got to see that.
How did that feel?
I mean, the Latino community and the Hispanic community really came through on this one.
I almost didn't integrate it until I started getting all of these messages and beautiful recognition that they were like, No, no, you're Latina, you're a lead, and you're in Star Wars.
This is, we don't get this, we don't ever get an opportunity to be in that space.
You have now opened this door and allowed us to dream bigger, that it is possible that we are wanted in these spaces, that we can be leading leading woman material, leading man material, because it's true, we absolutely are, and I didn't even think I could get to that when I started out.
I mean, I got told like, oh, you know, maybe you'll play like the best friend, you'll be like the help, you'll be sort of the ingnue, the pretty girl, whatever, and it drove me crazy because I'm like there's no way that's it.
So I refused.
I was like, no, I get to be a doctor, I get to be the lead in Star Wars, and I get to be in two Netflix shows at the same time.
Like there's really no ceiling; it's not what was built for me.
I broke through that pretty early on, and I, I hope that people can see that with resilience, hard work, and kindness, you can really get there.
Um, sorry, but when you have it, you have it.
No one can take that from you.
What's the prospect of being kind of pigeonholed or typecast or kind of put into these safe spaces that people think that, you know, if you look like this, you have to stay over here.
Is that something that once you started auditioning pretty early, you thought about and wanted to push against?
Did you feel like you had to kind of follow the rules or were you someone who was like, look, I know this is wrong and I'm the person who's gonna say this is wrong.
Yeah, I had those conversations pretty early on with my team.
I was like, I'm not going to play something that is going to be a harmful stereotype for my people.
Um, I also don't want to almost play outside of my head.
I know that I'm ambiguous and I could probably be a lot of different races, but I want to be Venezuelan, and I want to put that in the scripts and I've done that with so many projects that I'm like, I want to be Latina.
I want to be exactly who I am.
Um, and yeah, I didn't want any inflammatory content to be like, if I can't stand behind it, I'm gonna say no.
Um, I wasn't in that scarcity mindset or desperate to say yes to everything just because they wanted me.
I really want things to feel aligned and, you know, that could have been a risk for sure if I was pushing.
Too hard and someone was like, well, she's, you know, if she's saying no to these projects, like, there's nothing else.
I'm like, I don't think that there's nothing else.
And I actually think that I can do anything you put me in, and, and that's something I chose for myself.
I asked myself like, OK, what do you think you're capable of?
And I was like, when I kept going down the types of roles and the genres, I was like, all of them, I can do drama, I can do sci-fi, I can do horror, I love action, you can even put me in period pieces, which I haven't done yet, but would love to, um.
I, I just thought, you know, if our job is to be a storyteller, I don't think the body that we're born with and the shell that we are, should be a reason to not book something.
I think it's who we are as human, it's our experience, it's our culture, it's our roots, it's our family, our nurture or nature.
All of that is what makes us great storytellers, not just what we look like.
Uh, just as much as I love being Latina representation, I also don't just want to be typecast or boxed in.
I want to play all kinds of roles.
It's about the humanity, the story, and the depth, not just the ethnicity or appearance.
I believe being authentic in that is really important.
That's what makes us great storytellers, not just our look.
Uh, just as much as I love being Latina representation, I also don't just want to be boxed in.
Latina.
I just want to be a human that's a part of a show, and she just happens to be Latina, not just because she's Latina.
And so I think I've been able to kind of discuss all of this and, and being successful at it when you look at my repertoire and my, my.
My aim to be, I guess it's like I've been able to kind of do a bit of all of that, and it was a choice I made whether the industry wanted it or not.
I mean, that's another question, but seems like they do.
That's why I keep telling people I'm like, don't let anyone box you and they don't know what they want even.
You need to show them who you are.
I mean right now you're a Netflix queen because We're besties.
They're so obsessed with me.
They're just obsessed with Ginny and the Waterfront, which I think at one point was like #1 and #2.
So like, literally people were sending me that screenshot, and I was like, what can I tell you guys, you know, they can't get enough of me.
And then you shut off the TV and you go play your video games, and there I am.
You go listen to your audiobook, there I am.
Sorry.
I hope you enjoy my voice.
Um, let's start with Ginny and Georgia because I think that show is, I mean, what a riot, and some of those lines are, are amazing.
What's it like to be on such a strong ensemble cast, because I know that there's a lot of effort kind of placed on, you know, Ginny and Georgia and those characters, but I think what's so impressive about that show is that everyone is really at the top of their game and there are so many characters to love.
When we all got cast for season one, we weren't this big yet.
I think the show really took a chance on great talent.
And 90% of our cast is Canadian.
There's something to say about the gifted people that are artists here in Canada.
I'm so grateful that it's shot here and people almost started being like, oh, that was shot in Toronto?
Oh my God, those are Canadian actors, and it's just, it was such a sense of pride that I'm like, some of these Canadian actors like Sarah Weislass and Chelsea and like they've all been in shows like Degrassi and they were like in these other kind of iconic Canadian shows.
And now they got to.
You know, show their chops on these big platforms, and everybody grew together, including Brianne and Antonia, who, like, they didn't have a lot of body of work before this.
It was like everyone really came in to show up because, I mean the story, the scripts were incredible.
I remember reading every time we had a read through, we were like this is amazing.
This is like, is this gonna blow up?
Like, is this gonna be like one of those shows?
Um, we really had no idea until we saw the response to season one and then we were like.
Oh yeah, and it's only getting better.
I don't know how they do it, but every season just keeps getting better and better and better.
They're finding they have amazing creators like, it's just the writing and Sarah Lampert's mind.
I mean, I'm so proud of her.
I remember her being like, I was 30 and depressed writing the show on my couch, and it was my first time pitching to Netflix.
She really had nothing to lose but everything to gain and it's so incredible, such a big lesson on, like, right from what you know and right with what makes you fired up and take a risk, just go for it, because there may be millions of people who are gonna want to watch it.
What's it like to collaborate with Sarah in particular cause the storyline between your two characters I think is so great.
We hit it off right from the start, um, you know, I think for Sarah this was like a very new, uh, just like a new experience as an actor that she had to have a love interest who's female and like she had never gone there.
And I think we had to trust each other a lot.
We had to make sure that we were on the same page.
Um, so grateful we had intimacy coordinators and so many females on set that we could turn to, uh, so that we felt protected and taken care of and, and we were allowed to play so much, um.
You know, we had the privilege of shooting season one outside of COVID.
So we all got really close through that first season.
We'd go out and have parties and hang out and then things changed and they shifted because once COVID came, we had to kind of be like separated.
We couldn't really interact, we couldn't hang out anymore.
But thank goodness we had that first year to like solidify those connections.
And, you know, obviously now with season 3, like we were able to kind of be more free and Like it's all in the past, but what a whirlwind with the cast.
Everyone has really grown up together.
Um, some more than others.
We know that Diesel was like this tiny little thing and I was taller than everybody on set.
Um, it's just really cool, like we all kind of grew up with each other, and it's such a tight knit family.
The Waterfront.
So when there's a show with Kevin Williamson somewhere, you're just like, I have to say yes, yes.
Yes, I mean, oh my God, the second I knew that he was the writer, like producer, I was like, Kevin Williamson, like I'm a huge horror fan.
I watch all, like, you know, Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer.
He did Dawson's Creek, and the fact that he is a North Carolina native and he wanted to shoot this there.
I knew that that was going to be such a beautiful, personal project for him.
Um, Marcosieega was also producing and was directing the first, uh, like the pilot episode, I think the first two.
That's all I got told, really.
But when I saw the team, I saw that it was like Universal Studios for Netflix.
I was like, okay, and then they have Holt McCallany and Maria Bello cast.
And then I heard that my chemistry read was gonna be with Jake Weary, who's also an incredible actor.
I was just like, I mean, guys, yes.
And my only hesitation was like, oh well, like, I got in my own head about being Latina and I'm like, do I fit into this North Carolina fishing family, and like I was like, how, how does a Latina end up there?
I don't even know, but I could be, and, um, you know, Kevin let me know that they always intended Jenna to be Latina, which is amazing.
So really, without knowing, I had a bit of a leg up and they really did want me.
Um, Jake and I were the only two actors who did a chemistry read over Zoom.
reads that once I hung up the call, I was like, I don't know who else it could be.
I'm sorry, but that was like the best chemistry of my life, and it was only through Zoom.
If we have that much chemistry through a computer, like please put cameras in front of us, we'll show you, and it was exactly that, like it was such a seamless relationship like from day one it was just so great to work with actors who know what they're doing, who trust their choices, who are so generous and kind, because it renders this, it's what you saw on screen just great relationships, great acting, so much fun, soapy fun.
When you know you're reading a script or you're seeing a breakdown of a character or you're seeing something, is there something that you've kind of identified or, like, if there's this or if I can see this, then I'm really excited to do it.
For me, if the lines come easy to me, I can read a script once and remember the lines completely because it means that it had clear intentions and I was understanding everything that was happening.
Um, so that excites me.
It means that the writing is fluid, that they really thought this out, all the beats and everything, and, um, if I read it for the first time and I get goosebumps or I have an emotional connection to it, instantly, I'm excited because if that's my first instinct from a cold read, then it means that there's so much in there I can work with.
And that's usually how I work.
I mean, it doesn't really, I don't struggle with learning the material, um, but I do work from instinct, and if it doesn't fire me up from the inside, I'm like, then there's something that's missing.
And so my instinct is my compass, my body like.
I think I can read something and I'm exposed to something and it instantly hits.
It's like when they say goosebumps don't lie.
When you listen to a song or you watch something and you're instantly emotional, it's like our bodies know when something connects, and I've learned to really listen to that, and that's how I work on set.
Whether it's from the first time I read a script to going to film the scene, it was a very instant thing, and, um, for me, for Jenna and the Waterfront, the first and last scenes were my audition scenes.
And it was so intense.
Like, literally, I think I learned the material that same day I shot it, and I was in San Diego about to go into my Comic Con panel.
It was such a rushed thing in a hotel room with my co-star, but I was like, wow, the material just came so easy and it was so fun.
That I said to myself, look, even at my worst, this is still my best.
I think it's pretty good.
Before I let you go, is there something on your bucket list that's like, Oh, if I have the opportunity to do this, I'm gonna be really excited.
Oh, listen, I want to do a musical movie.
Um, I auditioned for In the Heights, and I actually got to meet John M. Chu over Zoom.
It was a really cool callback.
Uh, Melissa Barrera ended up getting that role and she's incredible.
And I'm even honored that I got to go out for something that big, shot in New York.
I mean, that's my dream.
It was like, Lin-Manuel Miranda, anything he touches, it's gold.
I would love to be in a musical movie.
I hope that it can also be with like Latin roots in some way.
And listen, if it's not out there, maybe I'm just gonna have to write it.
Maybe Lin-Manuel Miranda wants to collab.
Maybe it'll have to do with Venezuela, which hasn't been done.
We have such a rich culture in music, uh, specifically gaita, which is our Christmas music, and I've always had this like, like I, I envision it, seeing gaitas on screen, which I haven't yet.
So yeah, maybe it's something I have to create, but um I love singing and that's my first love and to do a musical movie, which is just like, uh, just like so wholesome, you know, we just got Wicked and it did so well and I'm like it would be so fun to be a part of that.